Thursday, 24 July 2008

Published in the John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier-Extended version

A summer reshuffle? Just what the journalists want, but sorry it's merely the repositioning of various backbenchers in the Parliament committees. This includes me moving from Education Committee to Economy, Energy and Tourism as vice-convener. It gives us all a wider range of experience. Their tourism enquiry report has just been published, but they are just about to start on energy - a subject close to our hearts in Caithness.

Since it is holiday time I'm in the mood to find as many ways to make it work for us with the Year of Homecoming arriving for 2009. My own travels this July throw some shafts of light on the possibilities we can exploit. The mixture of village galas, Highland Games and shows dot the fixture list. Meanwhile those lucky enough to be on holiday bring back stories and photographs to bore their relatives and friends. I'm no different.

This July was a mix of work and a much anticipated rest. The first in faraway Siberia, the second in Brittany. So what's that got to do with being a Highlands and Islands MSP? Quite a lot, as so many things are connected.

Thanks to my intervention last August, Historic Scotland finally agreed - after a long - campaign to carve a stone block in the timeline at Skara Brae to mark the first man in space, a Russian. It was celebrated in style last April 12th, Yuri Gagarin Day, and was attended by the Russian Consul General in Scotland, one of Gagarin's comrades Cosmonaut Grechko and the deputy governor of Yugra, Oleg Goncharov - not forgetting lots of Orkney folk and five Russian TV stations.

Oleg invited me to visit Yugra to discuss tourist links, oil and other business partnerships between the north of Scotland and the premier oil province of Russia. So on 31st June I ventured over, accompanied by Bob and Helen Miller who had campaigned for the Gagarin Stone, and with Alexander Korobko whose TV film on his Orkney DNA links won him a documentary prize in Yugra. A film is being made of our adventure to be screened on Russian Hour TV in September.

What a contrast between our seagirt Pentland Firth and the endless forests and marshland of the West Siberian Plains where one and a half million people live in an area the size of France. But for forty years their vast oil wealth has powered the Russian economy. In Khanty-Mansiysk, the Yugran capital, and in other oil towns they are reinvesting their share of Russia's oil revenues that they have produced into new housing, hi-tech education and health services, sports and cultural centres of excellence.

Just like Norway they are planning in Yugra for a future beyond oil, as we should be. But like Norway and Scotland, Khanty-Mansyisk has as much oil to recover as has already been extracted.

When you look at Caithness and Orkney we have that promise too just as soon as Scots demand the independence we require to make our own decisions. Yugra is not seeking independence from the Russian Federation but it is carving a distinctive place for itself in their system. Unlike the vast bulk of Russia their population is rising as it is a good place to live. These are lessons we need to learn here in Scotland and I was pleased to see the news that we actuaaly have more people living here for the first time in decades. But HIE is still agonising over the numbers of 16 to 30 year old who move south. We surely have much to learn from our northern neighbours.

If links between the north of Scotland and Russian Siberia are to develop then direct air flights would cut the hassle, even once a week flights. My Siberian journey involved a train to Edinburgh, sleeper to London, flights to Moscow and thence to Surgut, east of Khanty Mansiysk. Grueling, to say the least.

Sailing across the Channel the morning after fights from Siberia via Moscow was a bit surreal, but we made it. All the connections worked and it was the first time we had travelled by a catamaran, the Vitesse, from Poole to Cherbourg. Over 100 cars and their passengers made a reasonably calm sail in three hours. If Andrew Banks' new vessel is like the Vitesse it will be a big hit on the Pentland Firth betwen Gills and St Margaret's Hope.

When we arrived at our rented house near Quimper it was no surprise to find the newspapers Le Telegramme and Ouest-France discussing the price of petrol, food, prison overcrowding and young people drinking alcopops! So we are very European indeed. Also there were concerns that not enough tourists might arrive but the big pop festival in Cairhaix reached record numbers and the beaches look as busy as ever.

One of the biggest festivals is the sailing celebration that fills the harbour at Brest every four years. It is not like the tall ships race for which ports are bidding to host each year. Instead all sorts of sailing ships gather from many countries and several days of events on the water and on the quays allow many cultures to mingle in celebration of the sea and sailing ships. It attracts the biggest full rigged ships and small local fishing skiffs and Dundees that have been renovated by amateurs.

It benefits the local economy considerably and after four days in Brest the whole flottila goes across the bay to Douarnenez in a day's mass sail. And what a sight they make, along with thousands of others on cliff and beach vantage points we witnessed this shipping migration of over a thousand vessels in a mass of sails, sizes and styles. It is quite unforgettable to see the second largest sailing ship in the world up close. The four masted, square rigged, Russian sail training ship Kruzenshtern was inevitably the star. Indeed its current captain came to Brittany on that ship as a cadet many years ago. Such links between people of like minds are great to develop.

While it would take a huge leap to build the thousand plus ships under sail in a few years in our waters, making a start should be seriously considered. Imagine such sights as the Kruzenshtern sailing into Scrabster or Wick! If they are not invited we'll never know.

Last year during the Year of Highland Culture I was most impressed by the Moray Firth Flottila. The scenes in Wick harbour showed how popular celebrations of sail can be. Also earlier this year the adoption by Europe of an annual Maritime Heritage Day in May could lead to bigger events being organised in Scotland in future.

I certainly hope that Caithness and Orkney could get together and attract some of the great ships we witnessed at the Bay of Douarnenez in Brittany. If we don't ask the likes of the Russians we'll never know what we are missing.

The stunning victory for voters in Glasgow East means they must be listened to by the Labour government. If the Prime Minister fails to heed this shockwave, the days of all Scottish Labour MPs are numbered.

"The SNP will be demanding action on fuel duty, jobs and food prices. We will be campaigning with increased vigour across all constituencies for Scotland to have an oil fund from our share of Scottish oil revenues to pay for major investment projects in Scotland. This astonishing victory is a final deathknell for Labour. On a swing of this magnitude, almost no Labour seat in Scotland is safe. But this result is more than just a protest at Labour's increasingly out-of-touch administration, it is a positive endorsement of Alex Salmond's SNP government.

"The voters have shown their trust in the SNP to deliver the policies that are needed to reverse decades of Labour neglect and complacency. Here in the Far North we can too can benefit enormously from the SNP surge.

Wednesday, 23 July 2008

That the Parliament congratulates the organisers, participants and audience of Nòs Ùr (new style) which took place in Eden Court Theatre, Inverness on 21 June 2008; recognises it is the first Celtic and Scots minority languages song competition of its kind which featured 12 finalists from Wales, Brittany, Ireland and Scotland whose entries were in Gaelic and Scots; applauds the UHI Millennium Institute for organising Voices of the West, a conference on minority languages which ran in conjunction with Nòs Ùr; welcomes the importance of vibrant Gaelic and Scots languages and heritage that underpin the self-confidence of Scottish culture and believes that friendly competitions like this help to foster a greater togetherness and understanding of similar cultures; congratulates Yr Annioddefol from north Wales and Gwennyn from Brittany on their victory, and wishes them the best of luck when they represent Western Europe in the pan-European final due to take place in Luleå, Sweden on 18 October 2008.

That the Parliament welcomes the Portrait of a Nation campaign from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Liverpool Culture Company and participating cities and places; recognises this as a platform for young people to explore and showcase their heritage and identity through arts and heritage projects as part of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 celebrations; congratulates Highland composer and artist, Blair Douglas, for his piece titled Dealbh Dùthcha, which incorporates unique elements of Highland culture, including traditional music, Gaelic song, step dance and the spoken word, and features 30 of the very best young musicians, singers and dancers from the Highlands and Islands Fèisean to perform the piece; notes that Dealbh Dùthcha is the Highlands and Islands contribution and the only Scottish representation in Portrait of a Nation, and recognises the importance of celebrating local and national heritage and giving young people the chance to express themselves and their cultural identity.

Friday, 18 July 2008

"IT appears that Gaels were in a majority in Caithness right up until the early 19th century, although, of course, there was always a significant English-speaking minority in its north-east corner."

advertising That's one conclusion reached by Dr Domhnall Uilleam Stiubhart of Edinburgh University and Sabhal Mor Ostaig. It appears in a recent article from the June issue of Am Bratach and was prompted by the loud opinions that are "not all of (which) particularly well-informed" to be heard over the Highland Council policy to promote bilingual Gaelic and English road signs.

Commenting on this issue could be compared to treading on eggshells. What came first the chicken of anti-Gaelic pronouncements or the egg of mixed linguistic experience in Caithness? As a nation our native culture was rejected by the ruling classes that volunteered to assimilate to the British state from the 17th century onwards. Such issues as the promulgation of English in the Authorised King James version of the Bible and the rigorous rejection of Gaelic from the school room by the 1872 Education Act are but examples of the establishment attitude.

Meantime ordinary folk continued speaking their older tongues against the odds. That Gaelic has survived so far is remarkable. That the Caithness dialect of Scots is still vigorous is a tribute to local patriotism and robust local customs. Would that today's generation saw the bigger picture. Dr Stewart advocates that the perennial feuds of 300 years ago between the Sinclair Earls of Caithness and the cattle-raiding Mackays soured relations among Caithness farmers then why does such an anti- Gaelic voice appear today?

Noticeably the Courier/Groat online poll last week showed a majority in favour of bilingual signs. Yet virulent anti-Gaelic comments seem inexplicable. So folk memory still rules? Well, can't we find it in our hearts to enjoy a glorious mixter-maxter of cultures? Why is no-one suggesting correct Norse/Scots spellings for road signs where they occur? Bilingual signs in Norse/Scots and Gaelic would be most appropriate. Or does the legacy of English as the language of progress and education, that was beaten into our forebears, still rule the roost?

For the sake of our self-respect and the growing confidence of Scots in our own culture and languages I hope Caithness folk can decide a reasonable way ahead. Certainly there is a growing welcome for the inclusion of Scots along with Gaelic in the guidelines of the Curriculum for Excellence which will form the foundations of a confident base for our children's schooling. I hope Caithness, with the Year of Homecoming due next year and the National Mod in 2010, can celebrate our linguistic riches.

IT seems like a distance nightmare but this time last year farmers were suffering the twin ravages of violent weather and the threat of foot-and-mouth disease. To remind those who have forgotten, the crisis was caused by mistakes at a UK Government laboratory in Surrey. Restrictions were enforced which seriously hampered farmers' ability to move and ultimately sell their stock.

It was a hard time for all involved in livestock and it tested the nerve of many.

At the time I sang the praises of the livestock farmers in the north and west, as well as environment secretary Richard Lochhead and the Scottish Government's handling of the situation.

In a recent report on the crisis, Professor Jim Scudamore concluded that the Scottish Government handled it well. He said that their actions were in the best interests of the Scottish industry to ensure the return to normal conditions as quickly as possible.

He also said that other key industry players also made sure that the situation didn't get out of control. The agricultural sector as a whole was commended for their role in reducing the risk of disease incursion and spread.

It shows what can happen in a crisis when people pull together to minimise a serious threat. But crucially it suggests that the Scottish Government should have full control of crisis management and compensation issues. Westminster reneged on the costs for sheep farmers; that must never happen again.

By the time it finally reaches its goal of official university status, the University of the Highlands and Islands will have had enough time to complete several doctorates. Yet like a good wine or whisky it is something worth waiting for and what is undeniable is that in recent years progress to that goal has picked up speed. Great credit has to go to principal Professor Bob Cormack for his dedication and drive which saw UHI reach another milestone recently, that of receiving degree-awarding powers.

Why is the UHI important? Well for a start it is a truly a Highland and Island-wide university, a collegiate structure that stretches from Shetland to Moray, Lewis to Dornoch, Caithness to Inverness and many more places as far as Perth.

It is something that should be welcomed by all and sundry in the region. Rest assured it is going to happen as 6800 students currently study in UHI and there will be more in the future. It will allow students from the area to attend university closer to home if they wish.

This option has never been available to them before. Also it means that students from around the world will have a chance to study in some of our most stunning places and with some of the most innovative lecturers.

A fully-fledged UHI will help bolster the Highlands and Islands educationally, culturally and economically, not to mention give it a sense of confidence which has been partly missing. To see the importance that universities make to the feel and reputations of an area, you need only look at Dundee which is world-renowned for genetic research – when I was there in the 1970s it was still jute, jam and journalism.

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Over Parliament's summer recess I've had the chance to visit the autonomous Russian region of Ugra and its capital Khanty-Mansiysk. The idea germinated from a meeting a few months back involving the Gagarin Stone and the Skara Brae timeline. (Read my post from 15 April 2008 for more background) I was able to work with Alexander Korobko, the Russian Hour TV producer (Ugratime.tv), to put in place a stone commemorating the first man in space named Yuri Gagarin, a Russian.

Picture: Touching the newly placed Gagarin Stone set along the Skara Brae timeline in April of this year

After such collaborative success I was invited by Ugra's Governor, Mr. Alexander Filipenko, to visit the region at my earliest opportunity. Two 3 hour flights from London later and I was there. It would be 5 hours if you flew direct to reach beyond the Urals into the oil and gas rich plains of Western Siberia.

Picture: A dubious character (RG) in Moscow's Red Square

I previously met the deputy governor Oleg Goncharov in Orkney during our time working on the stone's commemoration. I have had face to face meetings with Governor Filipenko and also with his deputy chairman of government issues of Investment and Innovations, Mr Morozov (Mr Frosty - in literal translation, though he was far from that).

In Ugra there are one and a half million inhabitants living in an area the size of France. 25,000 are native Khanty-Mansiysk people who still live a traditional lifestyle to some extent. The attraction from the late Soveit times was oil. This area has helped transform the modern Russian economy. The pumping heart of the economic boom is westerm Siberia's oil fields, which produce around 70% of Russia's oil - some 7 million barrels per day. Western Siberia, it turns out, had even more oil than anyone could have imagined: more than 70 billion barrels have been pumped over the past 40 years.

Picture: Core samples in the Kern Museum KM where oil deposits are mapped

Mr Filipenko's latest project is the redevelopment of the provincial capital Khanty-Mansiysk, a town of 60,000. The province's oil industry generates $40 billion in annual tax revenues, $4.5 billion of which Khanty-Mansi gets to keep for its own use - the rest goes to Moscow. Khanty-Mansi therefore, has an unparalleled opportunity to create modern and desirable living conditions in a region otherwise thought of as harsh and desolate.

Above: The Well Being Hotel in Khanty-Mansiysk. A perfect example of the remarkable redevelopment going forward.

Above: A fountain in KM with one of our camera men - a film of our journey will be shown on Russian Hour TV in September

The Russian Federation has benefited hugely from such profitable soil and the area has been able to buck the trend of falling populations. Unlike the country as a whole, whose population is in decline, Khanty-Mansi's has increased 18 percent since 1989. It has been subject to major social investment using oil and gas profits to build a broader and more attractive economy for the future.

Despite his party background, Mr Filipenko's vision is distinctly non-Soviet. The capital's leading architectural symbols include a shomping emporium toppoed by a giang green dome in the shame of a chum, the traditional tent used by the region's indigenous people - the Khanty, Mansi, and others who hunt, fish and herd. Such symbolism was unthinkable in Soviet times when the state denied the very idea of culturally derived identity.

Picture: With Lenin, the Czar and Orkney friends Bob Mimmer and Helen

Mr Filipenko has been able to identify the myriad political, economic, and technical challenges looming on the horizon when the monetarily rich oil injections some day dry up. Today, Ugra takes second place to Moscow on volume of capital investments, and what's more, it has the best standards of living in Russia with top salaries, state of the art nursery, hospitol and recreational facilities. My series of informal meetings and visits to facilities and cultural, health and educational institutions shows how Mr Filipenko has been able to create a vitally modern city, about the size of Inverness, from a Siberian oil camp.

Tuesday, 8 July 2008

The geographic, climatic and cultural differences between Scotland and Ugra are very obvious - or are they?

From Shetland to Berwick it is 800km and as narrow as 40km between the Forth and Clyde, but we also have 100 inhabited islands. Our Atlantic temperate climate includes cool, wet winters and cool, wet, slightly warmer summers. Ugra is 1,400 km from the Ural mountains in the west, across the West Siberian Plains along tributaries of the Rivers Ob and Irtysh. Its short summer, deep in the continent of Asia, is warmer than London whilst winter is a ferociously dry cold dozens below zero.

Yet the Khanty-Mansiysk [KM] Autonomous Okrug - Yugra founded in 1930 is the same latitude as Muckle Flugga and St Petersburg. Nowhere near the Arctic Circle, the view of the stereotype.

The Russian Federation has been reorganised under Pres. Putin after the free for all in the Yeltsin years, but the KM government - with one and half million population in an area the size of France - keeps a proportion of the oil revenues from the production of oil that is 70 percent of Russia's total output. It is also a significant gas exporter. Of course 80 percent plus of oil in the North Sea is in Scottish waters but all oil revenues go straight to the London Government.

What does Ugra look like? 90 percent is virgin forest, the rest bog and huge waterways. Near KM city the Ob is a kilometre wide. River transport is open here from 15 May to 15 Octoberand the Arctic Newport at the mouth of the river a thousand kilometres north is ice free for two months only. Hovercraft are needed to serve riverside villages on the tributaries to navigate treacherous sand banks.

In human terms the indigenous Knanty-Mansi people number 25,000. They are part of the Fenno Ugrian language group having migrated west in some numbers in the 9th century. The Soviet period suppressed all other languages other than Russian. Now the way of life, heritage and languages are promoted and taught. They bark and pole 'tipis' or chooms provide motifs inmany pieces of modern architecture in modern KM city. While the reindeer herders and hunters continue to ply their trade.

The exploitation of oil was begun in Soviet times and Yugra celebrated the extraction of the 9 billionth barrel recently. 40 years of oil camps and board walks, wooden cottages and hastily built Soviet tenements are giving way to modern construction at higher standards than ever before. Scotland's thirty years of oil extraction was also celebrated this year but the social rewards of oil riches are yet to create a rich society.

Significantly, the rising prices of oil worldwide make both of our oil deposits all the more valuable. For Scotland, like Ugra, still has at least as much again to extract as it has already. Planning of the economy is coordinated by the Autonomous Government in KM. The Russian Federation owns the firms but the determination of Governor Filipenko to transform his District with oil revenues is easily seen. His vision rests on increasing the population and the modern school, a six year old university, cutting edge hospitals and School for the Gifted Children of Siberia are all manifestations. Ugra and two other Russian provinces buck the trend to falling birth-rates.

While working cities like Surgut, with 300,000 people awaiting the style of makeover achieved in KM, which is the size of Inverness. Modern public buildings concert halls and art galleries are as much a priority as housing. I saw examples of a rural government programme at Kysych [pop. 700] a river village 100 km from the city. Indigenous people are offered a three stage grant to build wooden houses themselves. Much like the Crofter Housing Grant Scheme. The ground is a peppercorn price.

I also saw one of the outpost local hospitals with various services and a midwife maternity unit. It serves a 5,000 sq km area as does the local militia man and award winning school. Its excellent performance has won a recent grant of 800,000 roubles to buy a suite of apple macs to augment its older PCs in the classrooms. From talking with the teacher of Khanty culture there I was able to see how the government teaches comparative culture in the schools.

The Congress of Fenno Ugrian language speakers preceded the EU Russia summit in KM city in June this year. These are significant events to put this go getting district on the map.

The airport allows internal Russian flights and could well be developed to bring international tourists and businesses here. I stayed in the top room in the Well Being Hotel which housed the main players at the EU Russia summit. It is four star and comfortable. I also experienced a Russian Inn about forty kms away in the outback. It was the site of a settlement in Dobrino for exiles removed there in 1932. Now broad water meadows and birch woods are far more relaxing than the struggle for survival in the Siberian winter. The wooden hotel complex could be from a scene in Dr. Zhivago. As a tourist attraction, Ugra offers summer and winter attractions and sports plus hunting and cultural activities. Whilst Ugrian oil workers would relish the scenic variety of Scotland and our mists, castles and music. The modern city of KM is a contrast to our much older established settlements and small islands.

Talking food, Russia has a good distribution system for locally and nationally sourced fresh vegetables and fruit. The river fish are very tasty too. Mucsun is a local variety to be recommended with the omnipresent cranberry juice. Visitors here should not look for McDonald's, is isn't allowed in. In return Ugra would like organic Scots lamb, beef and seafood. But not yet deep fried mars bars.

Government in Russia is not democratic as we know it. Though how democratic Britain is a conundrum too. But social, cultural and economic development comes in many varieties here. The Yugra government supports three TV stations locally where expression is much freer than Moscow channel One. All this with their norms in an autocracy. Still, think of London's grip on BBC and ITV...

So, all in all opening doors to economic cooperation would be mutually welcome. Boosting Scottish and Ugra exports key. A partnership that shares Edinburgh's financial skills, our IT specialisms and oil know how would grid with those in Ugra under a government determined to succeed in growing its population and building a distinctive future. Whilst Scotland is on the road to independence, this distinctive Russian province has the clout to decide how its resource wealth will build prosperity. Let's drink a toast in whisky and vodka to that potential partnership.

Friday, 4 July 2008

AN end-of-term report is due on my experience of the Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee. It was a most confrontational experience.

advertisingTrench warfare was the order of each day, once a week during term time. The committee comprises, three SNP, three Labour, one Lib Dem and one Tory; Labour convener, Karen Whitefield; SNP vice convener, me. From the prolonged battle over the details of abolishing the Graduate Endowment we knew it would be hard.

It was rejected by the casting vote of the Labour convener but passed by Parliament with SNP, Lib Dem and Green support. This began the route to free education for Scots students and was the first step towards reducing student debt as pledged by the SNP Government.

The bulk of the session was devoted to scrutiny of an EIS (Educational Institute of Scotland) petition for maximum class sizes of 20. Indeed we spent more hours on this than on evidence for the Creative Scotland Bill despite the straightforward enabling nature of this measure.

The hostility of Unionist parties to the reduction of class sizes in P1 to P3 that is central to SNP thinking led us into tortuous and long-winded debate. From my experience few committees allow such persistent supplementary questioning without time limit. Whether it amounts to more than a hill of beans remains to be seen. Some 80,000 signed the EIS petition; teachers and academics say smaller classes are best. So the SNP has set to deliver year-on-year targets for local government to meet their Concordat obligations. Highland already has 100 of the 180 primary schools complying. So with increased capital and cohorts of teachers in training significant progress across the country is to be expected by 2011.

The Creative Scotland Bill received the grudging endorsement of the principle of a single national cultural body, to be called "Creative Scotland". However the committee expressed significant concerns as to whether the Bill as drafted will meet its objectives. In an extended dogfight, critical and nit-picking amendment after amendment was forced through, five to three. But on the floor of the Chamber the third, and final, stage was voted through unanimously only to be negated by a Lib Dem move to veto the financial resolution. This lost so the Bill fell. The culture minister Linda Fabiani has assured MSPs and the creative industries and artists that this will be rectified in the autumn. Meanwhile Creative Scotland continues to transform from the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen. So gesture politics from the Unionist parties has slowed progress which the creative community should never forget.

Various personnel moves among SNP committee members have now been agreed. The moves to accommodate a member back from maternity leave, another going off and Brian Adam our chief whip to be freed up for management duties on a Wednesday morning have led to a reshuffle. I will take Brian's place as vice-convener of economy, energy and tourism while Kenny Gibson [no relation] moves from local government and communities to education lifelong learning and culture committee. My move comes at an exciting time when an energy enquiry is on the stocks. I will of course continue to serve on the transport, infrastructure and climate change committee which meets on Tuesday afternoons.

*

In a time when young people throughout the country seem to be categorised as self-obsessed, and caring more about the latest celebrity antics than the world around them, it is heartening to read the findings of NCH Scotland report called Hear our voice.

The report asked 500 disadvantaged children and young people in Scotland (including the Highlands) what their top priorities are for public policy in Scotland. The top three priorities came out as reducing poverty, tackling homelessness and providing better access to leisure and recreational opportunities.

These priorities follow a social justice agenda which chimes with that of the Scottish Government. It shows why Governments, MSPs and other decision-makers must not stop listening to the younger generation. In recent visits to secondary schools I have been impressed by the grasp that students have on important issues such as climate change and world affairs. We ignore the future at our peril and I would say we ignore the future of our young people's wishes to our detriment.

*

This year's Festival of Politics takes place in our Parliament during the Edinburgh Festival. The star turn will undoubtedly be Aberdeen-born singer Annie Lennox, who has sold 80 million records in an award-strewn career. Today she campaigns for women who are victims of HIV in southern Africa. In a newspaper interview last week she said she wanted to see a modern, forward-thinking and environmentally-friendly Scotland.

She continued, "In that way, if Scotland was to be independent, and it had that kind of vision, I would back it completely."

Next year sees the year of Scottish homecoming which will celebrate Scotland's great contribution to the world. It will also encourage people of Scots descent around the world – estimates range from 28 to 40 million people – to visit.

Very low. Hugging the landscape, the huge Hercules C130 transporter was often no more than 300ft above the heads of the startled sheep below.

The task was to rescue an infantry unit trapped in enemy territory.

We had only seven minutes on the ground to complete the pick-up while firepower from Typhoons and Tornadoes kept hostile combatants pinned down.

Happily, the landing zone was Wick airport in the far north of Scotland. This was merely an RAF training exercise.

"Of course we need defence but we must make sure it's proportionate." -Rob Gibson, Nationalist MSP

This week some 30 extra aircraft and 500 air crew and ground staff have descended on the twin RAF stations at Kinloss and Lossiemouth in Moray.

They're taking part in the Combined Qualified Weapons Instructors Course.

It's a bit of a mouthful but the 10-day series of exercises is the culmination of six months of training for Britain's top guns.

The aim is to prove the battle-readiness of not just the high fliers but also their strategic warfare planners on the ground.

"We're testing their ability to assemble large packages of aircraft to solve particular tactical challenges," Wing Commander John Sullivan of the RAF's Air Warfare Centre explained.

"We've asked them to go and extract some British troops that have been compromised in a forward position."

Some people are concerned about low flying in the Highlands

The aerial acrobatics of the Typhoons - previously known as the Eurofighter - flying together with Tornadoes, Hercules, Nimrods and various other aircraft create a plane-spotter's delight and quite a few enthusiasts will head for Morayshire to indulge their passion.

Other observers are less convinced of the need for so many low-flying training missions over Scotland's more remote areas.

Criticising the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) recent admission that pilots deliberately use people's homes and vehicles as dummy targets, Nationalist MSP for the Highlands and Islands Rob Gibson complained that the north of Scotland gets most of the pain and little of the gain from low-flying.

He said:

"We see the MoD's behaviour as arrogant because it feels it can use the Highlands as a military playground and I believe that's got to be challenged."

Part of the objective of low-flying is to remain invisible to enemy radar and attack aircraft.

And it's not just fast jets that employ the tactic.

The Hercules seemed so much faster and more manoeuvrable than I'd expected as we dodged along glens I knew from the ground but not from the air - such as Strath Halladale in Sutherland.

On the flight deck of the C130, Flt Lt Mark "Dutch" Holland insisted the experience offered by Scotland's topography was second to none.

He said: "Scotland's ideal because when we go out to Iraq there's often large numbers of aircraft operating in a very small bit of airspace.

"Also in Afghanistan there's very large mountains and very bad weather and Scotland has both of those."

The RAF argues that for as long as crews are required to fly genuine missions in such hostile areas, then low-flying training is vital.

I was elected Highlands & Islands MSP in 2003. I am a member of the Parliament's Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee as well as the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. I am also a historian, musician, author and traditional music festival organiser.
Scots, Gaelic and the Traditional Arts are core interests as are nuclear disarmament, affordable housing and saving consultant led services in the NHS.
I was born and educated in Glasgow, and attended Dundee University and Education College. As a former Modern Studies teacher much of my professional life was spent teaching at the Invergordon and Alness Academies as the Principal Teacher of Guidance. Since early retirement, or early ‘relifement’ as I like to call it, I have developed my historical training and skills by writing the book Plaids and Bandanas.
I have been a long time SNP activist and was a former District Councillor in Ross and Cromarty. I joined the SNP in 1966, was FSN President from 1970-1973 and have been a member of the SNP's National Council, Executive, and Cabinet.